Tuesday, May 27, 2014

The San Francisco Silent Film Festival (SFSFF) celebrates its 19th edition this weekend with a record-breaking 19 programs spread over four days. For diehard fans who believe nothing in the SFSFF line-up is "miss-able," that's going to mean back-to-back-to-back, 14-hour days happily ensconced in the bosom of San Francisco's renowned 1921 movie palace, the Castro Theatre. This year's fest kicks off on Thursday with the film that made Rudolph Valentino a star and ends Sunday evening with Buster Keaton's biggest commercial success. In between there'll be stops made for an Ozu gangster flick, an anomalous comedy from Carl Dreyer, a tribute to Max Linder, some Soviet sci-fi and a silent Sherlock Holmes.In an unsettling, if inevitable sign of the times, it appears that only nine of this year's 17 feature films will be screened in 35mm (I've indicated which ones in the SFIFF preview below, based on information obtained from the indispensible Film On Film Foundation's Bay Area calendar.) I've also pointed out which presentations will additionally feature so-called "Orphan" films, i.e."newsreels, outtakes, amateur films, test reels, kinescopes, trailers, promotional and experimental films, early silent narratives, as well as random fragments with no discernible origin."Thursday, May 29

7:00 PMThe Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (USA, 1921, dir. Rex Ingram, 35mm)To commemorate the 100th anniversary of WWI, this year's festival opens with what many consider one of cinema's first anti-war films. It's also the movie that made Rudolph Valentino a household name and inspired an international obsession with gaucho pants and the tango. (It was also the top grossing film of 1921 and the silent era's sixth biggest all-time box office champ.) The unknown Valentino was hired at the insistence of screenwriter June Mathis, a personal friend who would pen several other Valentino vehicles including Blood and Sand. The actor was reportedly paid less than his fellow cast members and had to provide his own costumes. The latter I find a bit hard to believe. Valentino's co-star Alice Terry would soon marry the film's director Rex Ingram, who would himself go on to discover Ramon Navarro. Musical accompaniment will be provided by the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra, who are celebrating their 25th anniversary this year. An opening night party will follow the screening at the top floor loft of the historic McRoskey Mattress Company Building.

Friday, May 30

10:00 AMAmazing Tales from the Archives (35mm & digital)This is always one of the most popular events of the festival, and not just because admission is FREE! First up, Bryony Dixon of the British Film Institute's National Archive will present several early nature films and discuss how the genre's pioneers invented equipment and methodology which is still used today. Then Dan Streible of the Orphan Film Symposium will reveal everything there is to know about Fred Ott's Sneeze, the iconic five-seconds-long film which became the first motion picture copyrighted in the U.S. Ott was an assistant to Thomas Edison and in 1894 he was filmed sneezing after having taken a pinch of snuff. Finally, Oscar winners Craig Baron (visual effects) and Ben Burtt (sound design) will employ stills, clips and animation to discuss Charlie Chaplin's significant use of technical effects. Stephen Horne will accompany the proceedings.

1:00 PMSong of the Fishermen (China, 1934, dir. Cai Chusheng, digital)Shot in an actual fishing village, this was China's first social-realist film and the first Chinese movie to win an international festival prize (at the Moscow International Film Festival in 1935). It was also the second film for actress Wang Renmei, whose memorable debut Wild Rose screened at SFSFF in 2009. Song was responsible for giving Wang her nickname "Wildcat of Shanghai," and during filming she announced her marriage to Jin Yang, who was considered China's Valentino. She consequently had her contract dropped by the Linhua Film Company, who believed a married actress wouldn't appeal to male audiences. This program will also include a pair of "Orphan" shorts, fragments of early (1911 and 1912) travelogues shot in the Umbria region of Italy. Musical accompaniment will be provided by Donald Sosin.

3:00 PMMidnight Madness (USA, 1928, dir. F. Harmon Weight, 35mm)This silent melodrama is one of 75 once-thought-lost films which turned up in a New Zealand archive in 2009 and has since been restored. Loosely based on "The Taming of the Shrew," it's the story of a wealthy diamond mine owner (Clive Brook) who punishes his gold-digging bride (Jacqueline Logan) by dragging her off to live a miserable existence in Africa. The film was produced by Cecil B. DeMille in between tenures at Paramount and MGM, when he briefly had his own production company, DeMille Picture Corp. Star Clive Brook is best known, at least to me, as Marlene Dietrich's lover in Shanghai Express, and co-star Logan achieved some fame as Mary Magdalene in DeMille's 1927, The King of Kings. The film will be preceded by the "Orphan" film Josephine Baker Visits Volendam, a 1928 Fox Company newsreel in which the American entertainer goofs around during a visit to northwestern Holland. Accompaniment duties will be fulfilled by Stephen Horne.

5:00 PMThe Parson's Widow (Sweden, 1920, dir. Carl Th. Dreyer, 35mm)Eight years before his austere masterpiece The Passion of Joan of Arc, Carl Dreyer made this rare comedy of manners in which a young man of the cloth is tricked into marrying the elderly widow of his deceased predecessor. A Swedish film set in 17th century Norway and based on a Danish story, it was one of the first Scandinavian movies to employ location shooting (the open air museum of Maihaugen in Lillehammer, Norway, which contains over 200 medieval buildings). One of the film's many highlights is said to be the titular performance by septuagenarian character actress Hildur Carlberg, who passed away just two months before the film opened. This screening will be accompanied by Matti Bye (presumably without his ensemble).

7:30 PMRamona (USA, 1928, dir. Edwin Carewe, 35mm)The great Mexican actress Dolores del Rio stars in this adaptation of Helen Hunt Jackson's classic 1884 novel about the persecution of a mixed race woman (Scottish/Native American) in 19th century California. It's director Edwin Carewe, himself part-Chickasaw Indian, "discovered" del Rio at a wedding in Mexico and convinced her and her husband to move to Hollywood. He would ultimately direct her in seven films. Ramona was the first United Artists release to feature a synchronized score, and a recording of del Rio singing the title song can be heard here. The film was considered lost until a print was discovered in the Czech National Archive in 2010 and subsequently restored by the U.S. Library of Congress. The colorful history behind that Czech print includes confiscation by the Nazis, a two-decade stint in the USSR and then a return to Czechoslovakia in the 1960's, where it disappeared from inventory lists for nearly half a century. The venerable Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra will accompany this presentation.

10:00 PMCosmic Voyage (USSR, 1936, dir. Vasil Zhuravlyov, digital)The festival's two Late Shows this year both hail from the USSR, starting with this near-futuristic fantasy about a professor, his female assistant, a boy scout and a cat all journeying to the moon in 1946. The film is noted for its grounding in actual science, thanks to the contributions of Soviet rocket scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, as well as for its impressive sets, stop-motion animations, considerable humor and stupefying tracking shots. Although endorsed by the Communist Youth League – they wanted a film that would encourage an interest in space studies amongst the country's young – Cosmic Voyage was withdrawn from release shortly after its 1936 debut and remained unseen until the 1980's. The film will be preceded by the "Orphan" short, Niemeyer Pijptabak, a 1923 animated Dutch advertisement for Niemeyer brand pipe tobacco (presented in 35mm). Both will be accompanied by the Silent Movie Music Company (Guenter Buchwald and percussionist Frank Bockius).

Saturday, May 31

10:00 AMThe Good Bad Man (USA, 1916, dir. Alan Dwan, 35mm)1916 was a busy year for Douglas Fairbanks. He appeared in 11 films – 12 if you count an un-credited role in Griffith's Intolerance – including this Western in which he plays a Robin Hood-like bandit who steals from the rich in order to support "kids born in shame." (The Half-Breed, which was shown at last year's festival and also directed by Alan Dwan, hails from the same year). This screening marks the world premiere of a new restoration, completed via a three-way partnership between the festival, the Cinémathèque Française and the Film Preservation Society. The Good Bad Man will be preceded by the 1906 "Orphan" short, Fragment of Market Street, After the Fire. Donald Sosin will accompany.

12:00 PMSerge Bromberg's Treasure Trove (digital)If I could only see one program at this year's fest, it would certainly be this new presentation from charismatic French preservationist/master showman Serge Bromberg, whose most recent Bay Area appearance was a mind-blowing program of rare and restored 3-D films at the 2011 SF International Film Festival. This go-round Bromberg will be showcasing a new version of Buster Keaton's 1922 short The Blacksmith, the world premiere of a complete two-reel version of Roscoe "Fatty" Arcbuckle's 1916 The Waiter's Ball and a work-in-progress look at Chaplin's 1916 Night in the Show, in which he plays two different characters. "Other surprises" are promised as well. As always, M. Bromberg will provide his own accompaniment.

2:00 PMThe Epic of Everest (UK, 1924, dir. John Noel, digital)This documentary is the official filmed record of explorer George Mallory and Andrew Irvine's failed (and fatal) attempt to climb the world's highest peak. It features some of our earliest moving images of Tibet and its people, and employed a specially designed telephoto lens which photographed the intrepid heroes from a distance of over two miles. The film was recently restored by the British Film Institute with help from the director's daughter, Sandra Noel. The BFI will receive this year's San Francisco Silent Film Festival Award at the screening, and the film itself will be introduced by Bryony Dixon, the BFI's Curator of Silent Film. Musical accompaniment will be provided by Stephen Horne and Frank Bockius.

4:30 PMUnderground (UK, 1928, dir. Anthony Asquith, digital)Saturday afternoon at the festival continues with a second recent BFI restoration, this one produced to celebrate the 150th anniversary of London's subway. This working class love story was the second film for director Anthony Asquith, whose revelatory 1929 A Cottage on Dartmoor thrilled this festival back in 2007. Although an aristocrat by birth, Asquith was also a staunch socialist (and rumored homosexual). His Underground is particularly noted for its German Expressionist lighting, use of Soviet-influenced montage and a climatic chase scene that's said to rival Hitchcock. Should you need further enticement, check out this lovely clip of the film's lovers flirting on a subway station escalator. None other than Leonard Maltin himself will be on hand to introduce the screening and Stephen Horne will accompany on piano.

7:00 PMUnder the Lantern (Germany, 1928, dir. Gerhard Lamprecht, digital)For the second year in a row, the festival's Saturday night primetime slot will be taken with a German film about a young woman's descent into prostitution. Let's hope it's half as brilliant as last year's radical reconstruction and restoration of G.W. Pabst's The Joyless Street. The Berlin-set Under the Latern is one of four silents from director Gerhard Lamprecht that were restored by Deutsche Kinemathek and premiered at 2013's Pordenone festival. Musical accompaniment for this screening will come from the Donald Sosin Ensemble, which includes Donald Sosin (composer/piano), Günter Buchwald (violin), Frank Bockius (percussion), and Sascha Jacobsen (bass).

10:00 PMThe Extraordinary Adventures of Mr. West in the Land of the Bolsheviks (USSR, 1924, dir. Lev Kuleshov, digital)Another late night, another Soviet silent – this one being an energetic spoof of American ignorance about the USSR, from one of Russia's foremost film theoreticians, Lev Kuleshov. The story concerns a YMCA executive who travels to Moscow and is kidnapped by a gang thieves pretending to be Bolsheviks (their leader is played by none other than fellow director/theoretician Vsevolod Pudovkin). As a longtime Russophile, I'm especially looking forward to the sightseeing tour of 1924 Moscow which purportedly ends the film. Speaking of comrade Pudovkin, Mr. West will be preceded by the Austrian trailer for his 1927 masterwork, Mother, which was recently discovered in the collection of the Austrian Film Museum and restored (and will be screened in 35mm). The Matti Bye Ensemble will accompany this program.

Sunday, June 1

10:00 AMSeven Years Bad Luck (USA, 1921, dir. Max Linder, digital)The final day of the festival kicks off with a tribute to Max Linder, the French actor/writer/director now considered cinema's first comedy star and an inspiration to Chaplin. In this American-made feature, Linder's character breaks a mirror and finds that his luck worsens the more he tries to avoid unlucky circumstances. It features his famous empty mirror gag, which would be copied by the Marx Brothers, Lucille Ball and others. Four years after making this film, the depression-prone Linder would commit double suicide with his wife. He would be remembered in Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds in a scene where German soldiers discuss the relative merits of Linder vs. Chaplin. Also featured in this program is an American two-reeler from 1917 titled Max Wants a Divorce. The films will be introduced by fellow countryman Serge Bromberg, and Donald Sosin and Frank Bockius will accompany the hilarity.

12:00 PMDragnet Girl (Japan, 1933, Yasujiro Ozu, 35mm)The festival has screened several Ozu silents in the past, but for one reason or another I've always managed to miss them. I'm therefore doubly determined to not forego this anomalous Ozu gangster film starring future Kenji Mizoguchi muse Kinuyo Tanaka as a gun-toting moll. The film is said to reflect the Japanese master's love of old Hollywood, with its pulpy storyline, moody lighting, proto-noir shadows, fluid camerawork and cluttered mise-en-scène (the latter evoking Joseph von Sternberg). Appropriately enough, the film will be introduced by San Francisco's very own Czar of Noir, Eddie Muller, and Guenter Buchwald will accompany.

2:30
PMThe Girl in Tails (Sweden, 1926, dir. Karin Swanström, 35mm)This feminist comedy would be the fourth and final directorial effort of Karin Swanström, a beloved character actress who later became Swedish cinema's most influential figure as head of production for AB Svensk Filmindustri. The story revolves around a small-town girl who attends her graduation dance dressed in male attire and consequently falls in with a feminist collective upon being disowned by her father. (Swanström has a memorable role as the town's leading citizen). Accompanying this feature will be the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra.

5:00 PMThe Sign of Four (UK, 1923, dir. Maurice Elvey, 35mm)Between 1921 and 1923, actor Eille Norwood portrayed detective Sherlock Holmes in 45 shorts and two features, with The Sign of Four marking his silver screen farewell. No less than Arthur Conan Doyle was said to be an enormous fan of the actor's interpretation of Holmes. In this adventure, Holmes and Dr. Watson (the latter played by Arthur Cullin, substituting for Hubert Ellis who played the venerable doctor in all of the other films) investigate a murder which appears to have roots in India some years earlier. The film was shot on the streets of London and includes a thrilling chase on the Thames. Musical accompaniment will be provided by Donald Sosin on piano and Guenter Buchwald on violin.

7:00 PMHarbor Drift (Germany, 1929, dir. Leo Mittler, 35mm)The festival's penultimate selection for 2014 is yet another slice of German miserablism from the 1920's. This one is a Hamburg-set parable about an old beggar, a prostitute and an unemployed young man who find a pearl necklace they hope will bring salvation. But of course it only leads to further degradation. Produced by Germany's communist-leaning "Prometheus" film collective, the film is said to be heavily influenced by Soviet cinema and is perhaps the best film directed by the little known Leo Mittler. Stephen Horne will accompany the film on piano, with assistance from Frank Bockius on percussion.

9:00 PMThe Navigator (USA, 1924, dir. Buster Keaton, Donald Crisp, digital)The 2014 SF Silent Film Festival sails into the sunset aboard an empty 370-foot long steamship, together with a pair of hapless passengers played by Buster Keaton and Kathryn McGuire. This comedy was Keaton's fourth feature and biggest commercial success, with a script written after Keaton's longtime art director Fred Gabourie, had rescued the film's ship from the scrapheap. Officially known as the USAT Buford, the vessel had been used to transport 249 American "undesirables," including activist Emma Goldman, from the US to the USSR in 1919. The movie's underwater scenes were filmed at the bottom of Lake Tahoe, where the water was so cold the crew could only shoot for 10 minutes at a time. Preceding The Navigator will be the 1929 short Pochta, a masterpiece of Soviet animation which follows a letter on its trip around the world. Guenter Buchwald will accompany the short (which will be presented in 35mm) and the Matti Bye Ensemble will do the musical honors for the Keaton film. The program will be introduced by Leonard Maltin and Frank Buxton.

Thursday, May 15, 2014

The 57th edition of the San Francisco International Film Festival (SFIFF57) concluded last Thursday and I've spent the past seven days reflecting back on what certainly felt like one of the best festivals of recent years. Below are some impressions of 20 films I caught during the 15-day run of the fest, in the order in which I saw them.No No: A Dockumentary (USA, dir. Jeffrey Radice)While I wasn't able to attend SFIFF57's opening night festivities, this portrait of Dock "No No" Ellis, the fiercely proud, high living African American major league baseball player who pitched a 1970 no-hitter while tripping on LSD, proved a most excellent way to begin my 2014 festival. Even better was the accompanying 10-minute short, Mike Jacobs' The High Five, which went on to win the festival's Golden Gate Award for best doc short. This joyful look into the celebratory sports gesture revealed that it was created at a 1977 Dodgers game by two future Bay Area sports legends, Dusty Baker and Glenn Burke. I became an accidental sports fan for all of two hours.Tip Top (France, dir. Serge Bozon)I'm willing to bet no other film in the festival was as universally loathed as this "screwball" policier about two perverse female cops investigating the death of an informant. While I was ambivalent about the director's 2007 drag-king WWI musical La France, his latest had an anarchic spirit I found admirable. For better or worse, my indelible image of SFIFF57 will probably be Isabelle Huppert's tongue lapping up blood droplets that slipped from the tip of her nose.Queen Margot: The Director's Cut (France, 1994, dir. Patrice Chéreau)At the last minute I made the decision to forego a 225-minute marathon screening of the French TV series Agnès Varda: From Here to There and catch this 159-minute orgy of 16th century French court intrigue instead. Restored for its 20th anniversary, Chéreau re-cut his acclaimed epic before his death last autumn, choosing the best materials from the film's French, International and U.S. versions. It was both bloodier and sexier than I remembered. And while the film is currently enjoying a week's run at NYC's Film Forum, I'm not aware of any plans to bring it back to the Bay Area. As for the Varda TV series, I caught it at home on DVD screener and it was of course, brilliant and enormously fun. I mean, centenarian Manuel do Oliveira doing Chaplin impersonations?Chinese Puzzle (France, dir. Cédric Klapisch)I probably would have skipped this film – it opens at Landmark's Embarcadero Cinemas on May 23 – were it not for the added value of seeing its director and lead actor in the flesh. If I'd skipped it, however, I might have missed one of the most entertaining evenings I've had in 38 years of attending the festival. This new film finds several characters from director Klapisch's L'Auberge Espagnole and Russian Dolls alive and well and living in NYC. In all aspects, Chinese Puzzle is better and much funnier than any three-quel has a right to be. Unfortunately actor Romain Duris, who's a longtime personal favorite and in almost every frame, had little to say during the Q&A save for a few jaunty rejoinders to questions directed at Klapisch. To any Audrey Tautou-haters out there, prepare to be astonished by a scene in which the Amélie actress speaks flawless Mandarin (don't ask), a task Klapisch says she spent three months preparing for. Chinese Puzzle ultimately polled second place for the festival's narrative feature audience award.Our Sunhi (South Korea, dir. Hong Sang-soo)I've see all but one of Hong's 15 features and his latest, for which he won a Best Director prize at Locarno, falls somewhere in the middle of my love-hate continuum for the director and his works. This one, while certainly clever enough, seemed mostly distinguished by its lack of a fractured narrative structure, and by having its female protagonist be as obnoxious as her male counterparts.Ten Thousand Waves (UK, 2010, dir. Isaac Julien)For some reason I was oddly unmoved by Issac Julien's MoMA-commissioned installation work, which impressionistically riffs on the tragic 2004 drowning of 23 Chinese cockle pickers in the UK (a tale more straightforwardly told in Nick Broomfield's 2006 narrative feature, Ghosts). Perhaps it was the medium? Instead of being projected onto nine gigantic screens, as it is in a museum setting, all nine differing images simultaneously occupied the Sundance Kabuki Cinemas' large screen in House One. Julien, who was at the festival to receive this year's Persistence of Vision Award, admitted we were possibly the only audience who would ever see it presented that way. I was considerably more taken with the career-spanning conversation between the director and film writer B. Ruby Rich, which preceded the screening.Norte, the End of History (Philippines, dir. Lav Diaz)I've long wanted to see a film by this acclaimed Filipino director, but have been intimidated by running times that can stretch as long as 12 hours. This was my final film of the festival's opening weekend and despite wanting nothing more than to go home to bed, I found myself riveted by all 250 minutes of Diaz' boldly original reimagining of Dostoyevsky's "Crime and Punishment." If you missed it at the festival, San Francisco's Yerba Buena Center for the Arts will screen it four more times in the latter half of June. I'm seriously contemplating a re-visit.Tracks (UK/Australia, dir. John Curran)Mia Wasikowska portrays Robyn Davis, the young Australian adventuress who trekked across 2000 miles of desert outback in 1977, in this better-than-I –expected tale of personal discovery with loads of spectacular landscape photography. My true reason for seeing the movie was actor Adam Driver, adorable as always in the role of a National Geographic photographer who helps Davis secure financing and becomes her contact with the outside world. I left the Tracks knowing more than I'll ever need about the behavior and training of feral camels.Stray Dogs (Taiwan/France, dir. Tsai Ming-liang)Tsai Ming-liang is one of my favorite directors and it was a thrill getting to see his latest work on the big screen. One re-enters a familiar world possessed of Tsai's recurring themes and signifiers – pathos, alienation, endless rain, food abuse, transcendent compositions and of course, his legendary long takes. But seriously folks, those final two shots – a 14-minute static close-up of actors Lee Kang-sheng and Chen Shiang-chyi staring at "something," followed by a 7-minute long-shot of them and that "something" – was cruel and unusual punishment for even this longtime fan.Club Sandwich (Mexico, dir. Fernando Eimbcke)I knew this would be one of my favorite films of the festival and I was not proved wrong. Director Eimbcke follows up Duck Season and Lake Tahoe with another heartfelt and hilarious deadpan comedy, this one about a pubescent boy encountering first love while on holiday with his single mother at an off-season beach resort. I can't wait to see it again. The screening was enhanced by the personal appearance of the charming Mr. Eimbcke, whose first two films played SFIFF without him in attendance.Happiness (France/Finland, dir. Thomas Balmès)This ethnographic docu-drama begins with Bhutan's king telling a cheering crowd of his decision to bring them electricity and the internet. It ends with a shot of bewildered villagers watching WrestleMania. What's the Bhutanese phrase for "be careful what you wish for?" In between there's an affecting tale of a young boy entrusted to a monastery, who eventually accompanies an uncle to the city for the purpose of buying a TV set. As would be expected, the scenery en route is stunning.The Blue Wave (Turkey, dir. Zeynep Dadak, Merve Kayan)This was the only film in the festival which failed to engage me in any way. I would suggest re-titling it, Mundane Mini-Dramas of a Bourgeois Turkish Teenager. For the remainder of the festival I lived in mortal fear it might win the SFIFF57 New Director's Prize. (It didn't).Abuse of Weakness (France, dir. Catherine Breillat)Isabelle Huppert gives yet another startling performance as Maud Schoenberg, a filmmaker who suffers a series of strokes and is subsequently fleeced out of nearly €1 million by a professional conman she wants to star in her next movie. The story is based on real events from the life of director Breillat, and is the ultimate filmic rendering of what it must be like to be totally dispossessed of oneself. Huppert is at her most harrowingly memorable in the physical and speech therapy scenes, as well as the finale where she struggles to explain her victimization to family and associates. "It was me, but it was not me."The Trip to Italy (UK/Italy, dir. Michael Winterbottom)Comedians Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon continue the often hilarious shtick they began in Winterbottom's 2010 The Trip with this Italian-set sequel featuring heartier food, lovelier scenery and still more celebrity impersonations (Gore Vidal, Clint Eastwood, Tom Hardy and yes, a Michael Caine redux). It also feels less fresh this go-round and I wouldn't hold my breath for a third installment. Their deconstruction of the word "kumquat" is in itself worth the admission price.Boyhood (USA, dir. Richard Linklater)If there was an unqualified masterpiece at SFIFF57, it was surely this incomparable paean to one boy's childhood and adolescence which was 12 years in the making. The screening was the highlight of a program honoring Linklater with 2014's SFIFF Founder's Directing Award at the Castro Theatre. A reel of career highlights kicked off the evening, followed by an on-stage interview conducted by none other than actress Parker Posey, who, along with Ben Affleck and Mathew McConaughey, made her feature film debut in Linklater's 1993 film Dazed and Confused. While perhaps the rambling Posey wasn't the best choice for a cogent inquiry into the director's esteemed filmography, she and Linklater had a genial rapport which easily won over the audience. After the screening, the filmmaker returned to the stage for a Q&A with his daughter Lorelei, who plays the main character's slightly older sister. The now college-age actress who was eight when filming began, described the dozen-years ordeal of making Boyhood as her personal "12 Years a Slave," and admitted begging her father to kill off her character sometime around the fourth year of production. Boyhood, which to the best of my knowledge has no precedent in the history of narrative cinema, opens at Landmark's Embarcadero Cinemas on July 18.Freedom Summer (USA, dir. Stanley Nelson)This exemplary documentary takes an in-depth look at 1964's Mississippi Summer Project, which saw over a thousand volunteers descend upon the Magnolia State to register African American voters (at a time when only 6.7% of Mississippi blacks were registered due to intimidation and archaic literacy tests). While I was familiar with much of this material, of total news to me was the movement's effort to unseat the state's official delegation to that summer's Democratic convention in Atlantic City. This occupies a large chunk of the film and is certain to alter any opinion you might have about L.B.J. Freedom Summer was produced for the PBS series "American Experience" and will air this summer starting on June 24. It polled second place for the festival's documentary audience award.Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter (USA, dir. David Zellner)While I'm inclined to avoid films described as "quirky American indies," a slew of rave reviews from Sundance had me checking this one out and boy, am I glad I did. Japanese superstar Rinko Kikuchi (Oscar-nominated for her role in Babel) stars as a malcontented, delusional "office lady" obsessed with finding the money buried by Steve Buscemi in the Coen Brothers' movie Fargo. The film's Japan-set first half is a painfully funny prelude – complete with noodle-slurping pet rabbit – for Kumiko's eventual arrival in a wintry Minnesota. Improperly attired and penniless save for a stolen credit card, she's guided toward her goal by a gallery of benevolently off-key Minnesotans. Writer/director David Zellner and his brother, writer Nathan Zellner were on-hand for a Q&A in which they revealed the story comes from a message-boards-era online urban legend, and that they wanted to create a story about someone in an "extreme state of isolation" using "multiple versions of reality."Eastern Boys (France, dir. Robin Campillo)A gay, middle-aged Parisian professional gets more than he bargained for after hooking up with a Ukrainian hustler in this, one of the very best films I saw at SFIFF57. What begins as another film equating danger with gay male erotic desire – à la Alain Guiraudie's Stranger by the Lake – slowly morphs into a tender love story of parental-like concern and then transforms again into the most intense, nerve-wracking thriller I've seen in years. Director Campillo is best known for co-writing the films of Laurent Cantet (The Class) and his only previous feature as director is the 2004 zombie flick, They Came Back, which is now sitting atop my Netflix queue.Manakamana (USA/Nepal, dir. Stephanie Spray, Pacho Velez)This hypnotic, contemplative documentary of sorts consists of only 12 shots, all 10-minute unbroken long-takes of passengers riding a suspended cable car up to (or down from) a mountaintop Nepalese temple. I was particularly struck by how the directors create a sense of suspense and anticipation each time the cable cars finish their run and enter the darkened building where passengers exit and board. For roughly 30 seconds the screen goes nearly black and we watch vague silhouettes leave the car. Seconds later, other shadowy figures get on board and remain mysterious until the car jolts into the sunlight. Three long-haired, Nepalese heavy-metal dudes transmogrify into two old ladies eating rapidly melting popsicles who in turn metamorphose into two young American tourists who then re-emerge as goats.Night Moves (USA, dir. Kelly Reichardt)Low-key indie director Reichardt (Wendy and Lucy) surprises us once again by following up 2010's lost-pioneers-in-the-desert drama Meek's Cutoff with this quasi-thriller about a trio of Oregon eco-terrorists intent on blowing up a dam. The first hour introduces the film's protagonists – a confident rich girl (Dakota Fanning), a taciturn co-op farmer (Jesse Eisenberg) and a backwoodsman (Peter Sarsgaard) – and meticulously follows every move of their final preparations leading up to and including the big event. The film's moodier second half delves into psychological aftermath, as an unforeseen consequence causes one of the three to consider surrendering to authorities.